For three decades, a single idea on how to safeguard Venice and its lagoon from
sinking beneath the sea has held sway: a wall of hinged barriers at each of the
three entrances to the lagoon that would rise at the flick of a switch to
collectively block extreme high tides from entering the lagoon. Sounds simple,
right? Well, it is, after a fashion. Below, watch an animated movie and see how the
mobile gates would work. For more on the gates proposal,
including its history and current status, see Weighing the Solutions.

Note: The Venice Water Authority/Consorzio Venezia Nuova, which developed the gates project,
produced this video and its narration, and the opinions expressed therein are not necessarily those of NOVA.